


Learning To Live

by GideonFluff



Category: X-Men (Comicverse), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Feral Behavior, Fluff and Humor, Implied/Referenced Torture, Inversed!Sabretooth, M/M, Medical Examination, Rehabilitation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-05
Updated: 2015-06-04
Packaged: 2018-04-02 22:45:28
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4076629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GideonFluff/pseuds/GideonFluff
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An inversed Sabretooth ends up being too big of a challenge for S.H.I.E.L.D. because without the constant rage blinding him, the feral is both a lot more sensitive to his environments and in dire need of some help.</p><p>Help arrives in the big, blue shape of one Dr. Hank McCoy who is willing to give the troubled mutant a chance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Learning To Live

**Author's Note:**

> I have a lot of other fics laying around, but I really needed to get this one out of my system. I'm pretty proud of this one even if it's just the premise for now. Things will get a lot more complicated in the future.

It had been almost half a year after the events of the so-called AXIS event, which had ended with everybody going back to their usual selves, safe for Iron Man, Havok and Sabretooth.

The latter had been transported from one correctional facility to the next over and over after he had turned himself in. But no prison managed to safely deal with a big mutant that could easily maul any guard and there had been several attacks where, despite still being inversed, the big feral had been frustrated and stressed enough to lash out and attack. Lucky there had been no serious injuries as he hadn't aimed to kill, but it had still forced the facilities to act, quickly.

Which was why Victor Creed ended up being handed over to S.H.I.E.L.D. Nick Fury had made sure a specially reinforced cell had been refitted to hold Sabretooth. What the director hadn‘t expected, had been Sabretooth‘s reaction to ending up in a cell that small with nothing to do.

He was outright terrorizing the guards and other high-security prisoners with his constant roaring and yowling, throwing himself at the walls so the whole block of cells could feel the vibrations. Any other time when he had been incarcerated on the island, he had been calm and collected and now they had a big guy throwing shitfits all over turning everybody crazy.

Fury and his science department had tried coming up with some things to change this state, but it seemed they were all out of ideas and their prisoner with the powerful vocal chords was simply put becoming an unsustainable issue.

After a whole night of almost constant roaring, Nick really had enough and addressed his communications officer. „Smith, get me Hank McCoy on the line. _NOW_.“

  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Beast had been in the middle of writing down some important notes when all of a sudden he got a direct videocall from Nick Fury. That usually meant trouble and he groaned slightly, taking a sip from his coffee before he actually answered the call.

„Yes, Mr. Fury, how may I assist you?“ It was actually a bit unusual for the director himself to call Hank. Usually one of his scientists would call if they wanted to consult him, so this must be serious.

„Evening, Doctor. I‘m calling because of an issue me and my staff have been dealing with for three weeks now... It‘s about a mutant prisoner you are quite familiar with. Would you be willing to come over and discuss this with me in person? I‘d of course send transport to pick you up.“ Understandably, the master-spy was always wary about discussing details on a call. He knew how easy it was for a talented hacker to tap into those lines.

Hank quickly checked his teaching schedule and found that he was free for the rest of the day, so he nodded. „Very well, Sir. Just please do me a favor and send a closed Helicopter. I‘d rather not get my fur in a bunch, if you get my meaning.“

After helicopter rides it was usually necessary to brush himself thoroughly or he‘d end up with tangled leaves and other debris in rather unpleasant places.

„Alright. Expect to be picked up in about two hours.“

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The helicopter arrived as predicted, and Hank got in, bringing his doctor‘s case with him in case he needed to do some tests on the aforementioned prisoner. As of yet he still didn‘t know who it was since there were a goo deal of mutants in the S.H.I.E.L.D. correctional facility that he was familiar with.

The pilot gave him a quick nod before looking back to his instruments and starting their flight to the helicarrier. Truth was, that McCoy didn‘t much enjoy being there. It was always a place that smelled of anxiety, stress and tension. Not very pleasant when your nose could easily pick up such things.

After their arrival, he was lead around by a young officer who immediately brought him over to the meeting room, where Nick Fury was already waiting for him.

„Welcome, Doctor. Please sit down so we can get started.“

Said and done, Hank was actually pleased to find that they had listened to his suggestion to keep a few bigger chairs for their more massively build visitors on hand. „Good. Because I am burning with curiosity. And you know it‘s not a good idea to keep me waiting too long.“ The furry scientist smiled and folded his hands, waiting for the crucial information.

When the spy pulled up the prisoner info on the large view screen, Hank‘s eyes widened and he ended up holding his breath. The mysterious prisoner was Sabretooth. That was not something he‘d expected since the big feral had been imprisoned in the X-Mansion before and generally been more or less docile while inside his cell. Well, at least as long as Logan didn‘t go and bother him. So what was different now?

„I‘ll simply show you the security cam footage we got and fill in the rest. You‘ll probably want to draw your own conclusions.“

Hank nodded and as he watched the videos that depicted the stressed-out feral, he began to feel anxious himself as he subconsciously picked up on the other man‘s body language. That wasn‘t the sadistic, vengeful man he had known before. This was a man who was being tortured by sensory deprivation and reacted perfectly predictable aside from the fact that his behavior was turning less human the more his stress levels were rising.

„Stop.“ At the surprised look he got from Fury, he raised a hand to keep him from talking. The scientist found that he actually needed a moment to absorb this.

„Let me recapture what I have just seen... You have a prisoner about my size, who also happens to be a feral, in that tiny cell with no stimulation at all and you are surprised he is turning insane? He is a mutant, yes. But he is also a human being. You caged him in worse conditions than some of the circus animals I have seen in documentaries. Unless you greatly improve the quality of his life to a reasonable level, you will not see any change in his behavior.“

That made Nick furrow his brows and scratch his chin. How to improve the cell when there was such limited space and funding, with the constant peril his organization was in.

„To me it seems like he would be much better off in your hands, Doctor McCoy. S.H.I.E.L.D. is not used to dealing with prisoners that have special needs, so to speak.“

The word special needs in this case was making the passionate scientist feel a big spark of anger. After a loud sigh, and mentally preparing himself to be in big trouble for this, he nodded. „Agreed. If you give me a week to construct a living space for him that is safe and appropriate I will take Mr. Creed into my care. Under one condition.“

Condition was Nick Fury‘s least favorite word when it came from anyone but himself. „Spill it.“

„You are going to put him in a bigger place while I build his new living space. I don‘t care if you lock him into an empty hangar or a training room. As long as he has space to move, he will at least not deteriorate to a point of no return until I can take him in.“

„... Fine. But you better make sure you‘re done in a week.“

„Oh, I will.“

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By the end of the week, Hank was feeling nervous. He had had a big argument with Kitty Pryde about this, despite calmly explaining how bad the situation was and gotten a lot of scrutiny for his decision to house Sabretooth in the basement lab where he worked in a specially constructed area.

Of course, he understood that they all had past resentments, to be honest he had some of his own. But the doctor also believed that no mutant, no matter how dark their past, should be suffering under torture or be treated poorly enough to regress into such a state. Also he felt that with the apparent permanent inversion, Creed might actually have a chance to recover from some of his trauma and end up as a stable person, able to live without continuously destroying either his environment or himself.

The arrival of McCoy's newest patient was rather awkward. A S.H.I.E.L.D. helicopter had transported the feral in a metal box for the whole journey. A space that tiny would have given Hank the heebie jeebies and sure had made Sabretooth angry.

There was no speech at all coming from him, just angry roaring and huge, clawed hands reaching out between the bars when the outer shell of the box was folded away to swipe at anyone standing nearby.

It really hurt Hank to see the man in such a deteriorated state. He couldn‘t help comparing him to Logan when he had first ended up with the Professor many years ago.

„It would help immensely if you would please step back from the crate and return to your base. I can handle this by myself.“ The two officers who had helped unhook and open the outer shell jumped back when Hank did his best to avoid the swiping claws and lifted the crate up to bring it down to the basement.

„Could somebody please get the door for me? Thank you, Remy.“

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Setting the crate down in the new living space was easy. Trying to get Creed out of there without getting mauled was yet another challenge. First he tried to see if the fellow mutant would accept some food or water. Both were quickly snatched from his hand and immediately consumed with vigor. A positive sign at least.

„Mr. Creed...“ That didn‘t get his attention. „Victor?“ The spark of recognition of his own name and the attention of two bright yellow eyes. Perfect. „If you stay still for a few moments I can release you from your cage. Can you do that?“

That seemed to draw a blank. Not quite on the level of human speech yet, so Hank tried a different approach after checking they were truly alone and started purring. It was after all a sound that cats used when they were injured to calm themselves and stimulate healing, and also a powerful way of communicating comfort. And if Creed could get the message that the scientist felt comfortable around him, he might be more willing to return the sentiment.

The purring startled the feral for a moment before he returned it and rolled into a ball in his cage. Very carefully, and while continuing his purring, Hank started to slowly undo the mechanism on the cage to make it fold open and release the other man into the much bigger area around him.

Except that Creed didn‘t move. He was still purring lightly, but also highly aware of this yet unknown space and feeling wary.

„I will leave you to explore your new home. In an hour I will return with more food, alright?“ Then he slowly inched back to the big door and stepped out of the area, activating the cameras he had installed in there. Naturally McCoy did not feel good about this invasion of privacy at all, but as long as his patient was in a state this critical he‘d have to be able to watch his behavior.

Time to get a big steak from the kitchen, cook it up and see how Creed would react to it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Carefully offering the steak when one hour had passed like he had assured his patient, it was time to review the footage from his cameras. Thankfully he was seeing some slow recovery in the stressed mutant.

Sabretooth had prowled around the area, marking furniture by rubbing his jawline against it. That did make Hank curious if the other man actually had scent glands there like it was common for felines.

There had also been a lot of sniffing, taking in new scents and the occasional growl at unfamiliar things or movements before Victor had finally ended up settling down on the topmost metal perch of a set of five on the wall, that Hank had installed there to give him something to climb on and retreat. A wooden perch would simply not be able to endure the almost 400 pound weight of Sabretooth jumping and climbing around on it.

The cooked steak had been sniffed and only slowly eaten. It seems that Mr. Creed had not been joking when he had occasionally mentioned that he ‚liked his meat rare‘. Eating habits were important, so Dr. McCoy noted down to try a more raw steak next time.

„Bon soir, docteur. How is dat newest patient of yours doin'?“ Unlike most of the staff here at the school, Gambit had not reacted as negative as the rest when Hank had announced that he wanted to take care of Sabretooth at the faculty meeting. In fact he had seemed understanding and even showed some reluctant support.

Likely because Remy LaBeau knew what it was like to be distrusted by almost everybody and try to build a new existence.

„Oh. Good evening to you as well, Remy. Mr. Creed seems to have recovered a little bit from his rough living conditions and is showing some improvement. Sadly he is not able to speak yet. That might take a few more days or even weeks.“

Gambit nodded and looked over Hank‘s shoulder, seeing the footage of the big feral rolling into a surprisingly small ball on one of the perches. „Dat is scary. Never seen the chat like this.“ Everybody knew Sabretooth as the confident, sadistic menace that he‘d been most of his life. Seeing him reduced to hiding up on a perch was pretty bizarre.

„Indeed. I do hope this hasn‘t done even more damage to his already explosive, unstable condition. But I will give him a bit of time to get used to this environment before I try to do any tests. He has gone through enough stress lately to last more than one person for sure.“

They both jumped when Creed leaped down from the perch and decided to roll up in the large reinforced bed instead.

„Seems he remembered how comfortable beds are, non?“

It was hard for both of them to take their eyes off the the usually so vicious man stretching out on the bed and then suddenly starting to knead the blanket with his massive hands like housecats liked to do. Good thing that this was a very resistant fabric that was also used for various parts of their modern uniforms that wouldn't be immediately destroyed by sharp claws.

„Quite so, I believe.“

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Over the course of the next two days, Sabretooth started to recover more and more from his critical shut-down state. On day two he actually started actively communicating with Hank. Not in human language, but very much taking an interest in his current caregiver and approaching him.

Admittedly, Hank did feel a bit weird being marked as property by having a furry jaw rubbed against his hands and shoulders, but he also appreciated being appreciated. I mean who didn‘t? Also it was a sign that his patient didn‘t feel resentful towards him to a large level.

Which would be very important if they were ever going to see bigger progress in his recovery.

During his evening meal Victor ended up surprising Hank by starting to groom him. One moment McCoy had been sitting there, watching the other man enjoy his steak, and the next he was being held by two amazingly strong arms and having the fur on the back of his neck and the hair on top of his head groomed by a large scratchy tongue.

„Oh. Well then. Thank you?“ That got a low sound of approval from the feral and even more grooming. Seems like he was starting to understand speech again.

 

Gambit had ended up stealing that particular tape after walking in to check on Hank and seeing the moment on the monitors, showing it to the rest of the staff. Most of them had simply been in awe at seeing Creed do such a thing, but Bobby Drake was outright in shock. That was one of the most dangerous people he had ever fought licking one of his oldest friends and having those big trademark fangs of his right by Hank‘s throat without hurting him.

„Holy shit.“

„Holy shit, indeed. Remy thinks that our furry blue friend really knows what he is doing,“

By now a good portion of the staff was definitely agreeing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Despite Hank not being pleased that his private video footage of his patient had been temporarily stolen, he did appreciate what Gambit was trying to do. So he had only given him a stern look and told him to ask next time.

By now Sabretooth was calm enough in his presence for a basic medical exam. Which McCoy performed carefully, but also curiously to see how Creed had changed from the last time he had seen him.

It seemed that the feral episode had triggered a few more physical mutations. Mostly paw pads developing on the ferals hands and feet, actual whiskers on his face, scent glands right under his jawline as suspected and his pointed ears getting a bit longer until Victor was able to actually move them to face sounds partially.

This was rather interesting from a scientific point, because the specific causes of further mutations was one of Hank‘s main study subjects.

„Would it be alright if I tested your eyes reaction to light?“ Hank always asked before he undertook a new test and waited for a clear signal of approval from the other man. While still not speaking, he clearly did seem to understand human language and his behavior was slowly becoming a bit less animal-like.

Turning off the light and shining only a small LED-bulb around, he noted that Creed had developed a so-called tapetum lucidum. The layer of tissue that many animals had to improve their nightvision. Most notably cats, dogs and many other smaller predators.

With the light back on, Hank made some notes until his pen was taken away from his hand and Creed wrote a small message for him at the bottom of the page.

_‚Thank you, fuzzball‘_

Well, it was good to see that Creed was slowly regaining his wit and confidence.

„You are quite welcome, Mufasa.“

That actually got a chuckle from Sabretooth. But there was much more to be done.


End file.
